East Midlands Oral History Archive
Arqueotex collection
Physical detail
- Number of items in the collection: 42 items
- Venues where material can be listened to: Record Office
- Media available on: CD
Collection history
The Arqueotex collection contains 42 interviews with 59 people, which were undertaken by the North Warwickshire and Hinckley College as part of a trans national, European Community approved, pilot project involving partners throughout Europe, who shared the same textile traditions and faced the same industrial crisis. Other partners in the project were Centre de Documentaci - I Museu Textil (Terrassa, Spain), Atelier (Chantemerle, France), Cork (Ireland) and the Wool Museum of Beria Interior, (Covilha, Portugal). Rhianydd Murray recorded the interviews between 1997 and 1999.
What the collection contains
The collection includes interviews on a range of aspects associated with the hosiery industry in the Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Nuneaton area during the middle and latter part of the 20th century. Over 60 years of techniques of the trade, production methods, trade union activity and working conditions are combined with the more social aspects of work, such as works outings, childcare and holidays. The everyday life of these hosiery workers is also recorded, together with more unusual experiences, such as wartime service during the Second World War.